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Monday, December 5, 2011

Top 5 Trek: Beverly Crusher Episodes

I have waxed rhapsodic many a time about what a MILF Dr. Crusher is. So I thought, why not catalog her greatest hits in a top 5 list?

Now, it should be said, that I have two criteria for naming something a "Top Crusher Episode." First, of course, is an episode that kicks butt on its own terms, and showcases her character to great effect. But also, there is the episode that is average or even below average, but falls into the category of "fan service" - an episode with moments to satisfy the perviest of Bev pervs.

This is a superb episode. Beverly isn't the main character per se, but she is a main focal point in terms of discovering the repeating time loop. Gates McFadden gives some really nice solo performances that show us silently her thought processes.

The Dancing Doctor. What more is there to say? Had this episode featured Beverly in a ball gown, it might have made the top 5. But it's still fun.

All Good Things...

The fact that it finally took an Irumodic Syndrome diagnosis to get a full-on kiss is eternally to Picard's shame.

Although this is a Picard spotlight, we get two versions of Dr. Beverly here. If they had only given us the early pre-highlight Bev, this might have made the list, too. But she rocks the old-lady look, and proves you can still keep a trim figure into your sixties.

Not only is this a pretty good episode, but it also features a bunch of Bev-fan service! She hikes her skirt up, trips on her heels, chews gum, gets offered Tommy Dorsey tickets, and wears stockings with the line up the calf. Her icy reaction to the cock-blocking that Whelan and Data perpetrate against her is also classic.

4. Sub Rosa

Beverly gets ready for a night of Ronin-rockin'...

OK, look. I know this is not a great episode. It is tonally weird, kind of slow-paced, and definitely a real departure from the TNG norm. I'm not sure how I'll rate it when we get to it. But for a Bev-perv? I call your attention to the two attached screen-grabs, and the copious amounts of orgasmic acting present. Is it weird to share a spectral-sex-romp with your deceased grandmother? Sure. But that doesn't change that Beverly is hot.

And all of the perviness aside, it is certainly a spotlight on her character, in which we learn lots about her. You know, besides what her "O" face looks like.

Look, again, this is not the greatest episode. But it's certainly a great moment for Crusher/Picard "shippers." Their scene, pictured above, in which Crusher finds him very... very... is a truly classic bit of chemistry between both the characters and the actors. Not now, Doctor!

2. Attached

A penny just won't do for the thoughts I'm having...

I had to get to this one some time. This is the culmination of things for the Crusher/Picard crowd. Crusher and Picard, attached at the mind by alien technology, finally discover each other's innermost feelings about their relationship. So why don't they consummate things at the end? Jeez, I don't know. But hey, it's better than "Menage A Troi," amirite?

This is the ultimate Beverly show. For one thing, she appears in about 40 of its 45 minutes. So there's that. But she also deduces the nature of the universe, runs the entire ship on her own, throws herself around the set in some killer stunt work, and has some terrific acting moments. This episode really builds her character and makes her concretely admirable. Top it off with the fact that this is a superb show in its own right, and you have the easy number 1 on this list.

15 comments:

Remember Me, Attached and I actually really like her scenes in Evolution. She had a lot of solid character development there. She's also very good in Transfigurations and Ethics as well. In both she's seen as a dedicated physician doing her job in an honorable fashion.

Another awesome trivia thing about Remember Me is that Gates was actually pregnant whilst filming those stunt scenes! She didn't find out until AFTER filming obviously, or she wouldn't have flung herself around like that, but still. Pretty impressive stuff.

What about "The Chase"? Well ok this is not a "Bev" episode but it is an excellent Picard/Crusher ep. If you watch at the end where they are standing with each other gathering the data, there is a moment that his arm is right against her breast.

Attached is my favorite Crusher episode. The writers really screwed up the following episodes by not exploring the Picard/Crusher relationship! When we finally do get a LITTLE payoff, in All Good Things..., We see only a kiss, then they are married and divorced all off screen!! I wanted to scream!

As a woman, I am not looking for perv moments for Beverly, just some quality, or even some quantity! "Attached" was very good, and I agree with the previous poster that the writers dropped the ball on a romance that many had been waiting 7 years for, while shoving Worf/Troi down our throat. "Sub Rosa" was good in terms of back story with the Crusher family, but the whole "I'm gonna do my granny's lover" was gross! But when she pushed him away to take care of J-LP, that was the pay-off for the entire episode. Yet again though, waisted opportunity for the writers to develop the romance that had always been there.

Not a fan of remember me, production could have had her coming though the turbo lift door,s of a cloaked enterprise in the same time and space as the real ship, voyager did it, and an enterprise voyager crossover would have been good, enterprise was at DS9 Birthright Pt1.

The Big Goodbye is my favorite Bev Crusher episode (because of her clothes)but it should have been a Crusher/Picard adventure. Data and the guy that gets shot add nothing to the show. And what's with Picard taking along the guy that gets shot instead of Beverly dressed in a skirt, stockings, and heels?